Many forecasts show industrial energy use growing rapidly in industrial countries. These forecasts do not adequately take into account the diminishing importance of basic materials use in the economies of mature industrial societies, the emerging shift of production based on virgin materials to...

The economical possibilities for using energy more efficiently in all countries and the ongoing shifts to less energy-intensive economic activity in industrial countries indicate that economic goals can be met with far lower inputs of energy than is indicated by most projections of global energy...